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2009 iMac has dirty shadow on display. Will Apple Care cover it?

N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,284
1,323
I have a 2009 iMac.

While it boots up with the white screen and Apple logo, you can see a real dirty shadow with hard outline on the right of the screen.

It has never really bothered me. I rarely notice it when I am using my iMac, except for when dealing with certain color screens. On Blue screens, I notice it more than anything else.

Anyway...

I have Apple Care that runs out in November.

If I took my iMac to the Apple Store at this point complaining about this problem will they simply replace the screen or does the entire unit have to be replaced?
 
Slowtrain,


Excellent! How long did they hold on to your display for?

Did you see a big difference afterwards?
 
I posted about a somewhat similar issue with a picture (see post #69 of this thread) and last Friday I finally had the chance to take in my early 2009 24" iMac into an apple store.

I hadn't even finished describing the issue and the guy already knew exactly what it is. He did the mandatory software diagnostic check which took a few minutes and then proceeded to order me a new LCD panel. I saw the invoice and the part alone was $550. So glad I got AppleCare.

Anyhow I haven't got it back yet, he said it would be 3 days to get the part and they'll email me when it's ready for pickup.

From my experience, you should definitely take it in. I had some pictures taken to better illustrate the problem and also a case number documented from AppleCare via phone about the issue which I think helped.
 
Of course it looks different. After being replaced, it looks completely clean and brand new. AppleCare will take care of it just fine. Don't worry.

Except it does come back in 4 or 5 months regularly in my case. I'm on 3rd display and it starts developing the same dirt. Going to be the 4th in couple of months. Just don't like the down time of having the screen replaced.
 
From the referenced thread above it sounds like this is a fan issue where there is just too much heat build-up and it burns the image on the screen.

Makes sense in my situation. I am in an upstairs bedroom that gets very warm in the Summer. It's regularly in the high 80s in the room and the iMac gets to temperatures of 150 degrees.

I'll make an appointment and bring this in. I, too, hate the down time and the driving distance (and gas) to get to the store 30 minutes away.

The reason I want to take care of this is because of the rumored new iMacs on the way.

I want to sell this one, and I don't need that dirty image on the screen when I sell it -- though really, it's not a huge distraction and one needs to really have to look for it to actually see it.
 
Yeah. Bring it in for replacemet. But wow .. You're planning to get another iMac? Unless it has a radical (and better) design, I would expect the problem still intact and you'll need another screen at some point.

Sure it's covered, but like I said, I don't like the down time.
 
I dropped mine off on a Sunday morning and got it back the following Friday night. The repair it self only took 1 day. It was just in line for repair for four days.

As far as appearance, it looks great. The problem is gone and the screen looks brighter and cleaner than ever before. Plus they cleaned out the dust in the iMac and checked the other hardware.

I didn't end up being one of those, "I got a 27 inch iMac replacement" stories, but I did get a new LCD and a clean bill of health on my Mac before the warranty ended. Glad I did it.

It will suck not having it for 5 days. I thought of a ton of things I wanted to do on it while it was gone..
 
yes, they will exchange the screen for free if you have applecare. just make sure to inspect the new screen in-store against several solid color backgrounds (especially white) to make sure that the colors are even and there's no dust under the glass cover. i didn't think of doing it until a few days later when i turned it on at home, and at that point i saw a few pieces of dust and uneven color on the screen (left side was white, right side was a bit yellowish). at this point i don't want to bother with it anymore since my applecare ran out.
 
definitive said:
yes, they will exchange the screen for free if you have applecare. just make sure to inspect the new screen in-store against several solid color backgrounds (especially white) to make sure that the colors are even and there's no dust under the glass cover. i didn't think of doing it until a few days later when i turned it on at home, and at that point i saw a few pieces of dust and uneven color on the screen (left side was white, right side was a bit yellowish). at this point i don't want to bother with it anymore since my applecare ran out.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I was told by the genius that the new LCD panel will have its own 90 day warranty, so even if AppleCare on the iMac runs out within the 90 day post-repair period, the LCD will still be covered by AppleCare for 90 days.
 
ATC said:
FWIW, I was told by the genius that the new LCD panel will have its own 90 day warranty, so even if AppleCare on the iMac runs out within the 90 day post-repair period, the LCD will still be covered by AppleCare for 90 days.
Click to expand...

True. But that's a very specific condition on narrow window. You need to have your parts replaced just some times before AppleCare runs out, and it might need to be failed again within 90 days.

It's surely possible, but very much less likely.
 
Just a update; got my early '09 24" iMac yesterday from the AppleStore with a new LCD panel installed. Total cost of replacement was just under $600, of course nothing out of pocket for me as I had AppleCare which ran out today.

They made me inspect the new panel in store which was really hard to do as the lighting in store is very bright and I felt kinda rushed. Took it home and low and behold; the new screen is a beauty. Super bright (I now have to reduce brightness to minimum for comfortable viewing), very even and uniform backlighting, zero dead pixels and no dust under the glass. Colours and especially whites look really natural and clean. The display now looks fantastic.

I'm not sure if the new panel is of the same spec as my old one but the difference is huge. I guess it could be that the old panel which was 3 years old didn't age well but if this thing remains like this I'll be super happy.

For anyone on the fence whether to take in their iMac for an LCD replacement, I'd say don't walk, but run out and do it. It's well worth it. They also cleaned out the whole inside of the machine (I guess dust and whatever else was in there) free of charge, which is a nice bonus. :)

iSayuSay said:
True. But that's a very specific condition on narrow window. You need to have your parts replaced just some times before AppleCare runs out, and it might need to be failed again within 90 days.

It's surely possible, but very much less likely.
Click to expand...

You're correct. I have 90 days now to see if this problem comes back but I got the impression from the "genius" that the LCD panel has a 90 day warranty that covers any issue that affects the display, that may come about in the next 90 days, not just this particular issue that I had.
 
I took my iMac in with 30 days left on the Apple Care.

My complain was ' sluggish operation '.

That's all I said.

Went to pick it up and was shocked.

New main board, HDD, new LCD Panel.

Evidently the tech saw something wrong with the display so it was replaced as well. The HDD was the cause of 'sluggish operation'. While doing the repair they said something happened to the main board with a connector to the LCD so they replaced that as well.

I have taken every Apple product in one month before Apple Care runs out, ya never know what they may find!
 
^^^
That's awesome. Yeah I was told they run a pretty thorough diagnostic before and after the repair is done to make sure everything is good.
 
harcosparky said:
I took my iMac in with 30 days left on the Apple Care.

My complain was ' sluggish operation '.

That's all I said.

Went to pick it up and was shocked.

New main board, HDD, new LCD Panel.

Evidently the tech saw something wrong with the display so it was replaced as well. The HDD was the cause of 'sluggish operation'. While doing the repair they said something happened to the main board with a connector to the LCD so they replaced that as well.

I have taken every Apple product in one month before Apple Care runs out, ya never know what they may find!
Click to expand...

i want that tech to work on mine!
 
jrcsh6 said:
i want that tech to work on mine!
Click to expand...

Not me. He almost certainly had to replace those additional parts because he broke them when he was doing the repair.

I’d rather have someone that can do a clean job fix mine.
 
Last edited:
polotska said:
Not me. He almost certainly had to replace those additional parts because he broke them when he was doing the repair.

I’d rather have someone fix mine that can do a clean job.
Click to expand...

good point but if he replaced them with new bits i'll excuse him!
 
harcosparky said:
Evidently the tech saw something wrong with the display so it was replaced as well. The HDD was the cause of 'sluggish operation'. While doing the repair they said something happened to the main board with a connector to the LCD so they replaced that as well.

I have taken every Apple product in one month before Apple Care runs out, ya never know what they may find!
Click to expand...

An Apple Store tech is what happened to the MLB... I can't tell you the butchers jobs I've seen inside machines that had just been serviced at an Apple Store.

----------
jrcsh6 said:
good point but if he replaced them with new bits i'll excuse him!
Click to expand...

Never new, almost always (99.9%) refurb...
 
I am about to return my iMac for the 3rd time for this same issue, 3 weeks outside of my Applecare expiry, hadn't noticed the burn this time as it was in the corner of my screen.

Do you think I will still be covered having this repaired twice already?
 
I took a 3.5 year old late 09 21" for screen blacking out to local service center yesterday, $650 for a new screen with labour. Hard drive was only 8 months old too. Told them no thanks not worth it.
 
Robster3 said:
I took a 3.5 year old late 09 21" for screen blacking out to local service center yesterday, $650 for a new screen with labour. Hard drive was only 8 months old too. Told them no thanks not worth it.
Click to expand...

First, it's not just the screen, proper replacement requires the LCD panel and inverter. Did you have them pull the hard drive for you? Drive is still useful. You can get the LCD panels (and inverters) in good shape and reasonable cost second hand, from machines with separate issues...
 
G-Mo said:
First, it's not just the screen, proper replacement requires the LCD panel and inverter. Did you have them pull the hard drive for you? Drive is still useful. You can get the LCD panels (and inverters) in good shape and reasonable cost second hand, from machines with separate issues...
Click to expand...

I rang Apple care this morning and they are replacing the screen for free, not bad for a over 3.5 year iMac, never had Apple Care either.
 
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